Kona 'Valkadon
= Overview = Kona 'Valkadon is a heretic elite, and is part of the 3rd (classic) RPG. Partially inspired by the character V from the movie and comic series V for Vendetta, Kona is an anarchistic sangheili who is working towards the downfall of the covenant, more specifically the prophets. Kona 'Valkadon was originally Kona 'Valkadee, as per the suffix reserved for a warrior of the covenant, but after leaving he changed the ending in his name. Kona never tells anyone else his real name, preferring to go by the Anonymous codename "Five". Because of this and the fact that his armor and helmet conceal his appearance, his identity is hidden from everyone, even his allies. = Backstory = Originally a Linghae (red-armored major) in the covenant, Kona was sent with a team to investigate a forerunner structure on the planet of Persephone. Here, they encountered a group of heretics. The heretics had found an unimportant monitor named 672 Atonement Beacon, who showed Kona and the rest of his squad a recording of the events just prior to the activation of the rings. Forerunners are shown recieving the warning of the activation of the rings, and then they are killed by the blast soon after. The identity and appearance of the forerunners seen in the recording are made intentionally ambiguous. This recording causes Kona and a few others in the squad to go rogue. Kona is about to kill his SpecOps Commander, when one of the loyalists attaches a plasma grenade to his helmet, holding it in place. Kona takes off his helmet and kicks the loyalist backward, at which point the grenade explodes and kills the loyalist. The sungheisa then holds Kona against the wall until one of the original heretics, Vada-Khu 'Odradon, shoots him down with a beam rifle. Afterward, Kona and the other elite who rebelled, Jaln 'Betulee (now 'Betulon) are recruited into the heretic group. They then go to embark on a mission to capture the ship that dropped them off, thus erasing any trace that they were ever at Persephone (Kona cannot join them, without a helmet he cannot survive on Persephone's cold surface). At this time, Kona gets to know the other heretics, including Erosh 'Arumachtee, the brother of Talu 'Arumachtee who is roleplayed by the same person as Kona. A few hours later, it is revealed that they had succeeded in playing the monitor's recording throughout the ship, but had had to pull out because of superior numbers as well as Jaln's being taken prisoner. Kona launches a solo rescue mission to free Jaln, but is trapped by Jaln, who was only playing along with the heretics in order to defeat them. Kona reacts rather calmly to Jaln's betrayal, but then vows to take revenge on him one day. He then shoots a pipe full of gas, clouding everyone's vision. He handcuffs Jaln, throws him into an escape pod, and then launches it, leaving 'Betulee's fate open-ended for the moment. After escaping the ship in a banshee, Kona was picked up by another covenant ship, and then soon after was discovered to be responsible for the murder of his commanding officer (judging from the blood on his stolen helmet, and from his own confession). As punishment, Kona was taken to High Charity, stripped of his rank, given the Mark of Shame, and then made a test subject in a covenant project designed to experiment with a new covenant-made virus based upon the flood. Remarkably, Kona was the only survivor, with his bodily immunities not only coping with the virus, but becoming stronger and faster for it. The covenant used his blood to help synthesize a cure for the flood disease, but before it could ever be used, Kona escaped, destroying the secret testing facility in the process. The plasma fire that leveled the complex also badly burned Kona's flesh and left him greatly disfigured. This story is very similar to V's origins, in which he was also used as the guinea pig for biological warfare, was the sole surviving test subject, escaped while the facility was on fire, and was horribly burned in it. After having had time to fight back the pain of his burns, Kona returned to Persephone as a new individual. He was stronger, smarter, faster, and a great deal wiser. The heretic surgeons did all they could for Kona. His condition was stable now, but they could not repair the damaged skin and flesh. So instead, Kona wore his newly-finished suit, made with the machinery in the forerunner station. = 3rd RPG = Act One: Depredation In the 3rd RPG, about ten years later, Kona is masquerading as a member of the High Inquisition. He awakens in his home on High Charity to the sound of the Fiery Retribution slipspace jumping into the city. Gathering his belongings, he sees Zeya 'Paruee attacking the loyalist soldiers, and follows her hoping to recruit her into his group. He commandeers a covenant boarding craft, heading towards the Fiery Retribution, only to be caught in its slipspace vortex as it leaves High Charity. Due to a strange anomaly in slipspace travel, Kona's ship reemerges from slipspace inside the Fiery Retribution along with a mass of other ships. Kona is soon captured by the humans on board, and then sent on a mission with Zeya 'Paruee and Erpa 'Lytamee Konuelo by Walter Corvin to kidnap the 12 spartans on board the Point of No Return. The mission is successful, and he and the other two elites are returned to the Fiery Retribution. The next mission the group embarks upon is to capture a gigantic covenant ship known as the Great Prophet. This mission ultimately fails when the Hand of Truth arrives on the ship, and Inquisition soldiers capture the group. Held prisoner on board the Ascendant Evincar, Kona and the others are rescued by humans from the Hammer of Dawn and successfully capture the Ascendant Evincar, going so far as to rechristen it the "Ascendant Hero". Kona, having been taught the coordinates by 672 Atonement Beacon, plotted the slipspace vector, and thus the ship arrived at Alpha Halo. Act Two: Ringworld Landing on the ring with one of the ship's lifepods, Kona landed on the ringworld, and rendezvoused with 'Lytamee and the others just as they were under attack by loyalist soldiers. After aiding the Coalition in the defense of Alpha Base, Kona went with 'Lytamee and his squad to take Halo's Control Room from the Flood. The mission succeeded, and Kona then proceeded to use the control room to signal his heretic allies for reinforcements. When the reinforcements arrived, they brought two high-yield explosive devices with them, with the intent of destroying the ring. Erpa 'Lytamee confronted Kona, trying to prevent him from detonating the bombs, but when 343 Guilty Spark appeared to them, he told 'Lytamee the truth about the rings, and that they must be activated again if the flood outbreak is to be controlled. At this point in time, Kona protests, saying he cannot allow the rings to be activated. Guilty Spark summons a group of sentinels, which are then destroyed by Kona, 'Lytamee, the heretics and the coalition members. Act Three: Entropy Afterward, with Guilty Spark nowhere to be found, the AI Petra is inserted into Halo's Control Room, and uses the forerunner teleportation network to transport a group to High Charity, via the forerunner ship kept there. Once there, their mission would be to broadcast a pre-recorded speech by Kona with the intent of spurring a rebellion in the covenant. Once inside the city, the timer on Kona's detonator finally goes off, and Kona says he cannot destroy the rings, because he cannot make such an enormous decision for so many people, and that they should choose whether or not to blow it up. He then hands the detonator to 'Lytamee, who also refuses to make the decision, and instead passes it to Pvt. David Firestone who accidentally presses the button as he catches it, activating the bombs. The explosives shoot out from the control center as two long streaks of plasma that create a "V" shape before smashing into the other sides of the ring, and separating it into three pieces. Afterward, 'Lytam broadcasts his own speech, and the recordings of the final moments leading up to the first activation of Halo brought by Kona. At that point, High Charity descends into chaos, with a civil war beginning to break out due to this new information and 'Lytam's speech. Five slips away to their escape route, to find it blocked by twenty covenant soldiers, as well as Jaln 'Betulee, who in the ten years after being ejected into space by Kona, has been promoted to Councilor. Kona kills two brutes attempting to take off his mask, and is then shot and killed by the twenty-one soldiers, but this "Kona" is revealed to be a holodrone, and the real one was hiding on the ceiling with his cloaking activated. The true Kona drops from the ceiling, grabs the spike grenades dropped by the two dead brutes, and hurls both of them at the two brutes adjacent to Jaln. A bloody but brief fight ensues, ending in Kona's victory. After slaying Jaln's twenty soldiers, he grabs Jaln by the throat and breaks his neck, delivering on his promise of giving Jaln a painful death ten years prior. Act Four: Antecedents This Act has not yet been written. Act Five: Machina This Act has not yet been written. = Trivia = Kona 'Valkadon regularly makes references to the letter V and the number Five: * Kona 'Valkadon has five syllables. * Kona's last name, 'Valkadon, begins with the letter V. * Kona was the fifth member of his heretic group. * "Seven" and "Five" are the only two numbers in the english language that contain the letter V (excluding other numbers that also have 7 or 5 in one of the digits.) * The Theme song of Halo, when converted to morse code, translates to the letter V (Morse code for V is ...- "Short-short-short-long").